Speaker Profiles

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This conference took place on 24th January 2006. If you would like to order copies of the speaker's slide presentations, you can still do this using the booking page here.
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Chairs and speakers include: (Click on name to jump to profile)

• David Coats
  Associate Director - Policy, The Work Foundation
• David Liddle MBA
  Director, Total Conflict Management
• Ben Willmott
  Employee Relations Advisor, CIPD
• Matthew Howse
  Partner, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert
• Rita Donaghy CBE
  Chair of ACAS Council, ACAS
• Linda Hoskinson
  Managing Director, People Resolutions Group
• Wendy Tull
  Diversity Manager, Kent Police
• Sarah Veale
  Head of Equality & Employment Rights, Trades Union Congress
• Colin Moulds
  Senior Manager – Quality Team, Vodafone UK Ltd
• Jonathan Djanogly MP
  Shadow Solicitor General and Shadow DTI Minister
• Paul Crosland
  Head of Restorative Justice, Mediation UK

Profiles:

David Liddle MBA, Director, Total Conflict Management

David has extensive experience of mediation and dispute resolution within a variety of contexts. In 1994, whilst based in Leicester, he established one of the first community mediation schemes in the UK. Subsequently, he went on to establish the Conflict Resolution in Schools Programme (CRISP), was a founding member of the Midlands Mediation Network and was active in national and international mediation, conflict resolution and community cohesion programmes.

In 1998, David established Total Conflict Management ltd. (TCM), based in the Centre for Workplace Mediation, offer high quality and innovative responses to workplace conflicts and disputes. Total Conflict Management provide mediation and conflict resolution services to public, private and voluntary organisations and have taken a leading role in developing national practice standards for workplace mediators including the development of the national certificate in workplace mediation skills. David has recently been working with the Cabinet Office, Department for Culture and the United Nations to Help embed the principles and practices of mediation within their staffing and HR policies and procedures.

In 2004 David was awarded his MBA with distinction having undertaken detailed research into the effectiveness of mediation within organisational grievance, bullying and harassment policies and procedures within a number of large London Boroughs.

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Rita Donaghy CBE , Chair of ACAS Council, ACAS

Rita Donaghy CBE is the Chair of Acas Council - the body responsible for directing Acas. She joined Acas after a long and distinguished career in employment relations through voluntary union work.

Rita's involvement in the employment relations world began over 30 years ago when she set up a clerical branch of NALGO at the University of London. This led to her forming the national committee and drawing up national conditions for university support staff. Having served on NALGO's National Executive Council since 1973 with spells as Vice Chair, Chair and President, Rita was then Chair of the Steering Committee which oversaw the merger of NALGO (local government), NUPE (public employees) and COHSE (health workers) into UNISON. This was no easy task as it brought together three large organisations and it took five years to achieve.

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Linda Hoskinson, Managing Director, People Resolutions Group

Linda is MD for People Resolutions Group, a national organisation assisting HR specialists with constructive and speedy management of all forms of employee absence and potential grievances.

She has developed leading-edge approaches to prevention, resolution, mediation, independent investigation and to assessing absence and returning people to work. She has set standards for the delivery of all services - uniformly and consistently throughout the UK.

She has 15 years' experience in HR Management, has worked internationally on diversity and employee assistance and is a Director of WLS, part of the Teacher Support Network, ensuring tailored services to the education sector.

Linda has contributed to government research into mental health and job retention, and into professional case management for the UK in relation to 'return to work' services.

Linda is familiar with government initiatives and contributes actively to the professional bodies such as CIPD, BACP, ACW, Mediation UK and the Vocational Rehabilitation Association.

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Sarah Veale, Head of Equality & Employment Rights, Trades Union Congress

Sarah Veale is Head of the Equality and Employment Rights Department at the TUC, where she has worked since 1985. The Department covers women's equality, equal pay, race equality, disabled workers' equality, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, and equality on the basis of religion and age; the Department also leads on employment rights, both individual and collective.

Before becoming Head of Equality and Employment Rights, Sarah was Senior Employment Rights Officer, in which role she was responsible for the development of TUC policy on employment law. She co-ordinated TUC activities in relation to the introduction of the Employment Relations Act 1999 and wrote the TUC Guide to the Act. She was also responsible for various TUC submissions to the Government, and was a member of the TUC team which negotiated the national framework agreement with the CBI and the Government on the Information and Consultation Regulations. She regularly briefs senior union officers on developments in employment and equality law. She is co-author of "Your Rights at Work", the TUC's book on employment rights.

Sarah is a member of the ACAS Council and the Government's Better Regulation Task Force.

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Colin Moulds, Senior Manager – Quality Team, Vodafone UK Ltd

With over 20 years experience in Vodafone Colin has considerable experience of working within a start up company changing through rapid growth into the 2nd largest company in the UK. During that time Colin has developed significant skills in People Management, recently managing a team of highly skilled 6 Sigma Blackbelts and Master Black Belts through a major change programme.

Over the last 3 years Colin has been developing his own Coaching and Mediation skills for use within the business supporting other teams and individuals with the skills he has acquired.

In the last year Colin attended and passed the TCM Workplace Mediation Course accredited by OCN and has started a 12 month Life Coaching Course through the UK College of Life Coaching.

Colin's driving belief in business is that achievements are only gained through people and to get the best you have to provide an environment where people feel valued, trusted and safe.

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David Coats, Associate Director - Policy, The Work Foundation

David Coats was appointed as Associate Director - Policy at The Work Foundation in February 2004. He is responsible for TWF's engagement with the public policy world, seeking to influence the national conversation about the world of work. He is recognised as an expert commentator on employment relations and quality of working life issues. Recent publications include An Agenda for Work: The Work Foundation's Challenge to Policy Makers, What is the Knowledge Economy? and Speaking Up! Voice Industrial Democracy and Organisational Performance. In the next year he will be developing a programme of work around European social policy and flexible labour markets.

From 1999-2004 he was Head of the TUC's Economic and Social Affairs Department managing work on economic and industrial policy, the welfare state, public services and the development of partnership at work, having first joined the TUC in 1989 as an employment law specialist.

David was a member of the Low Pay Commission from 2000-2004 and was appointed to the Central Arbitration Committee in 2005. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Involvement and Participation Association and a number of academic advisory panels including the Industrial Relations Research Unit at Warwick University, the Centre for Organisation and Innovation at the University of Sheffield and the ESRC Future of Work Programme.

From 1990-98 he was a councillor in the London Borough of Haringey.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

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Matthew Howse, Partner, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert

Matthew is a partner in the firm's Employment and Pensions Group and advises a wide range of clients on all aspects of employment and discrimination law. He has advised many clients on redundancy programmes and has successfully defended several claims of unfair dismissal arising from redundancies. He has extensive experience in the drafting of contracts and employee benefits documentation and on the TUPE Regulations and their impact on commercial transactions. Matthew has handled many Employment Tribunal cases of all kinds and is experienced in advising clients on how best to handle difficult disciplinary matters, team moves and the termination of employment of senior executives.

He is an active member of the Employment Lawyers Association and was a member of its sub-committee on the Information and Consultation Regulations. He is recommended in the Legal 500, 2005 edition.

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Wendy Tull, Diversity Manager, Kent Police

Wendy joined British Transport Police (BTP) in November 2005. For the previous four and a half years she held the role of Diversity Manager with Kent Police. Whilst in this position she led the achievement of Kent Police gaining a rating of 'Excellent' for Race and Diversity in inspections carried out by Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabularies (HMIC). Kent Police was the only force to achieve this grade in both the 2004 and 2005 inspections.

Prior to working for Police Forces Wendy has held positions in both generalist HR and Training roles. These have included: HR Manager for a National field force, Training Manager, HR and Management Development Consultant and NVQ and IiP Project Manager. These have been with key organisations such as British Energy, Mazda UK, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, the Engineering Construction Industry Association (ECIA), the Hotel and Catering Training Company and Kent Training and Enterprise Council.

It was during her time at Kent Police that Wendy introduced the process of Workplace Mediation. Today she will share with us her insights and wisdom from this experience and how she is now looking to introduce a similar structure within BTP.

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Ben Willmott, Employee Relations Advisor, CIPD

Ben Willmott joined the institute in October 2003. He is responsible for ensuring the CIPD's interests are represented across a wide range of public policy areas including stress, data protection, health and safety and dispute resolution.

His others areas of interest include absence management, working time and the Information and Consultation directive.

Prior to joining the institute he was news editor and employment law editor at Personnel Today magazine.

He started his career in regional journalism where his roles included chief reporter at the Daily Echo in Bournemouth, and crime reporter on the Northampton Chronicle and Echo.

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Jonathan Djanogly MP, Shadow Solicitor General and Shadow DTI Minister

After graduating from Law School in 1988, Jonathan joined the City law firm, S J Berwin LLP, becoming a partner in 1998. His speciality areas of practice are corporate law and corporate governance.

He served as a Westminster City Councillor from 1994 to 2000. During his time as a Councillor, Jonathan chaired various committees of the unitary authority, including the Traffic, Planning Applications, Contracts, Environment and Social Services Committees.

Jonathan was first elected to the House of Commons for the Huntingdon Constituency in June 2001. He has served on the Select Committee for Trade and Industry and is a member of the All Party Group on Corporate Governance. He was appointed Shadow Minister for Home, Constitutional and Legal Affairs in 2004. In 2005 he was appointed Shadow Solicitor General and also Shadow Minister Trade and Industry, with specific responsibility for corporate governance issues.

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Paul Crosland, Head of Restorative Justice, Mediation UK

Paul is the Head of Restorative Justice at Mediation UK, where he has worked since 2001, providing training, conferences and support to Mediation UK member services and practitioners involved in mediation and reparation. His previous work was as a criminologist and a volunteer neighbour mediator and his most recent training is in workplace mediation.

His conflict resolution interests are in the impact of 'victim-offender' labelling, in the expression of each other's universal human needs, in helpful and harmful apologies in workplace disputes and in 'negligence' cases. Paul has also worked with the Home Office and criminal justice agencies to produce and publish restorative practice training, assessment and Best Practice Guidance materials.

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